Wild day of walk-off wins for Central baseball
Central College
PELLA — It wasn’t always easy, but the Central College baseball team battled for two extra-inning walk-off wins, sweeping Loras College 1-0 and 5-4 Saturday.
In Saturday’s regular season finale, the Dutch (20-19, 16-12 conf.) completed the four-game sweep of Loras, after taking two against the Duhawks (19-20, 13-14 conf.) by identical 1-0 and 5-4 scores Friday. The four-game sweep means Central finishes the regular season in third place and will be the No. 3 seed in next week’s Iowa Conference tournament.
The two teams went to the bottom of the 10th scoreless in game one. Second baseman Noah Stochl (sophomore, New Hampton) led off with a double down the right field line. Kyle Gritsch (freshman, Brooklyn, Iowa, BGM HS) was inserted as a pinch runner and subsequently advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by catcher Tyler Frideres (freshman, Algona). Gritsch jogged home for the game-winning run after Loras pitcher Alex Steines was called for a balk.
Holding the Duhawks scoreless was starting pitcher Dylan Diveney (freshman, Marshalltown). He took a no-hitter into the bottom of the 10th, before a two-out single by Dan Weis gave the Duhawks just their third-base runner of the game. Diveney struck out five and walked only one, throwing the full 10 inning game.
“I can’t say enough about Dylan’s performance,” coach Matt Schirm said. “The most important thing was getting ahead in the count and throwing strike one. He was throwing strike one to get ahead in the count and then was able to mix his pitches and throw them all for strikes.”
Down 3-0 to start the top of the seventh inning in game two, Loras led off with a triple to right field. The Duhawks would plate four runs in the inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Left fielder Zach Zylstra (senior, Pella, Iowa, Pella Christian HS) drove in center fielder Jake Hirst (sophomore, Davenport, Iowa, Assumption HS) to tie the game 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh.. Zylstra had been 1-12 for on the weekend before the game-tying double.
“He came through big, which he’s done a number of times for us this year,” Schirm said. “He just kept battling through the series and battling through at-bats and his last two or three at-bats were really good.”
Kyle Gritsch would score his second game-winning run of the day after Loras committed two throwing errors in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Austin Meyer (junior, Bondurant, Iowa, Bondurant-Farrar) took the win in game two, after pitching a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts. Matt Schissel (junior, Milan, Ill., Alleman HS) started for the Dutch, going seven innings and striking out two for a no-decision.
Four Central seniors were honored in a Senior Day ceremony as Zylstra, Andy Carr (Rockford, Ill, Lutheran HS), Kirby Coppess (Urbandale) and Jordan Gier (Washington) wrapped up their home careers. First-year coach Matt Schirm cited the quartet’s leadership as a crucial part of this team’s turnaround.
“They’ve been outstanding,” he said. “They were the first four guys that I called when I got this job. They were all complimentary of last year’s seniors and how good of leaders they were. They were eager to take on that role this year and they’ve done a great job.
With the end of the regular season brings the start of the postseason. Central will head to Cedar Rapids for the first round of the Iowa Conference tournament and will face the No. 6 seed Duhawks at 1 p.m. from Veterans Memorial Stadium.
College baseball
at Pella
Game 1
Loras 000 000 000 0—0 1 1
Central 000 000 000 0—1 4 2
Diveney and Frideres; Steines and Fahlgren. W—Diveney (5-3); L—Steines (2-4). Central 19-19 (15-12), Loras 19-19 (13-14)
Game 2
Loras 000 000 40—4 6 4
Central 000 012 11—5 6 2
Schissel, Meyer and Reuter/Frideres; Walsh, Massner, Schreck, Forkenbrock and Crabill W—Meyer (1-2); L—Forkenbrock (0-1). Central 20-19 (16-12), Loras 19-20 (13-15)
